Carla Esparza and Rose Namajunas had a bout akin to that of Adesanya and Romero. 5 rounds went by and barely anything happen.
In this particular case, stats paint the best picture of what happened or more like didn’t happen.
Over the course of 25 minutes, Namajunas threw 37 strikes while Esparza threw 30.
The key to Esparza’s victory is likely the fact she landed 2 takedowns as opposed to 1 from Namajunas.
Trevor Wittman did his best to motivate Namajunas to throw caution to the wind and deliver but she seemed reluctant.
Her 13 years older fiancé Pat Barry delivered this key piece of advice that may have ended upc costing her the title:
“Hear the boos? You’re doing it right.” Pat Barry tells Rose Namajunas
In the end the judges awarded the decision victory to Esparza. Esparza hugged her husband to be after the victory.
She was recently spotted enjoying her bachelorette party alongside many of her friends.
Esparza explained her decision to not move her wedding date despite being in camp:
“Fight and wedding are one week apart ??? ??. When I was offered this fight date, I immediately said yes. There was no hesitation. This fight would take priority over everything, I was even willing to change my wedding date knowing that my fiancé, friends, and family would understand.
Well, since the wedding is the week after the fight, I had a choice to make. And to be honest, I was really struggling with the decision of whether or not to change my wedding date. Everyone wants to look and feel beautiful on their wedding day. I went to my fiancé, and what he told me sealed my decision. He said, “honey, if you have bumps or bruises, that’s perfectly ok with me, I knew what I signed up for when I asked a fighter to marry me. It’s part of your job. I think you are so beautiful, but I am not marrying you just for your beauty. I’m marrying you for <insert mushy stuff lol>.” I am just so grateful to have this support from my amazing fiancé Matt. Te amo mi amor , can’t wait to marry you❤️”
This won’t be the first time Esparza is facing Namajunas, she previously clashed with the current strawweight champion back on TUF and emerged victorious. This is one of the reasons Namajunas was eager to face Esparza over Joanna or Weili Zhang. Esparza is one of the rare competitors in that division with a pure wrestling pedigree. Despite that many question her capabilities when it comes to ground work – due to the fact Esparza trains at 10th Planet jiu jitsu.